Why Do We Grow So Much Alfalfa?
Bales of alfalfa in the Imperial Irrigation District of southern Calfornia, grown with Colorado River water. Photo by Brian Richter During recent years I’ve had... Read More
Blog
Solving Water Crises Begins With Good Data
Photo of Lake Mead by Brian Richter Note: This blog post was originally published in Research Communities by Springer Nature. Media coverage of this story... Read More
Reviving the Rio
The Rio Grande near the Colorado-New Mexico state line. Photo by Brian Richter “There are few river systems in the world that have experienced such... Read More
Transforming our farmlands for a drier climate
Irrigated fields in the Imperial Irrigation District, California. Photo by Brian Richter This blog was originally posted on Nature’s Sustainability Community website A decade ago,... Read More
From Research Into Policy
Lake Mead on the Colorado River. As of today, the lake is 70% empty due to overuse of available water supplies; more than 70% of... Read More
Big Cities Are Downsizing Their Water Footprints
Photos above: Forty percent or more of all water use in western US cities goes to outdoor watering of lawns, gardens, pools, and golf courses.... Read More
Let’s Stop Blaming the Compact
Members of the Colorado River Commission, in Santa Fe in 1922, after signing the Colorado River Compact. From left, W. S. Norviel (Arizona), Delph E.... Read More
An Abrupt Warming of the Colorado River
The downstream face of Glen Canyon Dam, which forms Lake Powell, America’s second-largest water reservoir. Water is released from the reservoir through a hydropower generation... Read More
Addressing Water Illiteracy
Water cycle illustration courtesy of US Geological Survey The US Geological Survey just announced the availability of the new water cycle graphic portrayed above. Upon... Read More
Where Our Water Goes
Cows grazing along the North Platte River in Wyoming. Photo by Brian Richter ___________________________ Many communities and ecosystems around the globe are experiencing dangerous water... Read More
Sustainable Groundwater Management for Agriculture
Crop irrigation with groundwater, Carbondale, Colorado. Photo by Brian Richter I traveled to the World Water Week in Stockholm last week to release a new... Read More
Bruce Babbitt and Brian Richter: Saving The Colorado River
(Zak Podmore | The Salt Lake Tribune) The sun rises above cracking mudflats deposited just above where the Colorado River meets Lake Powell on April... Read More
How To Pay for a Water Conservation Program
Above: Aerial view of downtown Bozeman, Montana. The city recently implemented water policies to stabilize their water use under tremendous growth pressure. Photo by Diane... Read More
This Guy Wants to Cut His City’s Water Use in Half
The offices of the Watershed Management Group in Tucson, Arizona. The native vegetation on the property is supported with rainwater capture. ___________________________ Nearly a decade... Read More
Catching Rain: A Home Builder’s Perspective
Photo above: One of Darrel McMaster’s “Sustainable Homes,” built in the Hill Country of Texas near Boerne. The house produces all of its own energy... Read More
The (Nearly) Lost Art of Catching Rain
Photo Above: The author’s 600-gallon rainwater cistern, tucked away in the boat shed. It provides all water needed outdoors at his home in central Virginia.... Read More
Communicating Water Risks
The Colorado River has been dropping rapidly over recent months, leaving mudflats on its margins. Photo by Brian Richter ___________________________ In early January, I wrote... Read More
Congratulations My Friend
I woke up this morning with a big smile on my face. Today, the world will recognize my hero — and one of my closest... Read More
The Irrigation Efficiency Paradox
Center pivot sprinkler irrigation, Bozeman, Montana (USA). Photo by Brian Richter _____________________ In an excellent New York Times article published on July 23rd about the... Read More
Braggin’ on my Bro
Please forgive me as I need to brag on my brother Brad for a moment. Today has been proclaimed as Brad Richter day in the... Read More
Betting the Farm
Farm along the Rio Grande in the San Luis Valley of Colorado. Photo by Brian Richter. Farming has always been a betting game. The risks... Read More
Day Zero on the Colorado River, revisited
Watching the water level fall in Lake Powell. Photo by Brian Richter ______________________ The US Bureau of Reclamation, in its most recently published “24 Month... Read More
Hey Reporters: Let’s Get This Story Straight
Lake Mead on the Colorado River is now nearly two-thirds empty. Photo by Brian Richter ______________________________________________________ Seems like every day brings another news story about... Read More
Clarifying Intent
A number of my colleagues read my OpEd in the Denver Post yesterday and asked about the title (“Western Slope needs to suspend irrigation to... Read More
The Denver Post – Guest commentary: Water Crisis Demands Attention
Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images. A bleached “bathtub ring” is visible on the rocky banks of Lake Powell in Utah in this 2015 file photo. ... Read More
The Great Uncoupling Between Water and Growth
“Vegas Lights” by Premshree Pillai, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 ___________ My research group published a new paper last week in the international Water journal that presents... Read More
The Shark is Upon Us
Lake Powell’s water level continues to fall behind Glen Canyon Dam due to overuse of the Colorado River. The Bureau of Reclamation projects that it... Read More
An Admission of Erratum
Following my last post that provided an update on the status of water use and reservoir levels in the Colorado River basin, Rebecca Kimitch of... Read More
Struggling for Sustainability on the Colorado River
The 900-year old Nankoweap Granaries perched high above the Colorado River provide an inspiring setting for contemplating the future of a river that has provided... Read More
A River-Running Season Abbreviated
Floating the Yampa River in Dinosaur National Monument. Photo by Brian Richter ____________________ Every January, my email inbox swells with messages from a community of... Read More
Staying productive in pandemic times
Photo: Water tanker in Madras (Chennai), Tamil Nadu, India by Akshay Davis (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) ___________________________ Near the end of our Spring semester at the... Read More
New Survey Reveals American Concerns About Water
Source: APM Research Lab | Water Main survey, conducted May 7-12, 2019. An educational organization called “The Water Main” has just released a sweeping new... Read More
Let’s Refill Lakes Mead & Powell Now
Bad News for Lake Powell As of Monday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) forecast for this year’s expected water supplies in the Colorado... Read More
Day Zero for the Colorado River
Image: “Parched” (Lake Mead) by Angel La Canfora, Creative Commons America’s two largest reservoirs — Lake Mead and Lake Powell on the Colorado River —... Read More
Two birds with one soap: How to fight COVID-19 and build good water-saving habits
Guest blog by Allen Townsend, Brendan Markey-Towler & John Pickering _____________ We’ve been talking about handwashing A LOT lately. Handwashing is one of the first... Read More
Pay the Farmers Now
My colleagues and I have just published a new study in Nature Sustainability that provides a detailed overview of water use and its implications in... Read More
Fishing Beneath Condors (or Why do we have to pay to keep water in rivers?)
Image: Andean condor soaring over Torres del Paine, Chile. photo by Brian Richter __________________________ I’ve just returned from three glorious weeks in Patagonia. We did... Read More
A Colorado River Water Primer
Image: Lake Mead is now less than half full (courtesy of Wikipedia Commons) __________________________________ A good number of my friends and colleagues have complained that... Read More
Mixed Blessings
Image: 2011 was a very big runoff year for the Colorado River and its tributaries including the Yampa River shown here. The unusually high flows... Read More
Saving a Holy River
Image: A 2,000 year old Roman bridge over the Jordan River (photo by Brian Richter) At this time of worship and celebration for many of... Read More
Shark Water Redux
Last week I was able to attend the annual gathering of the Colorado River Water Users Association (CRWUA) in Las Vegas. It appears that my... Read More
A Shark in Fresh Water
Image: Lake Powell lost nearly half of its storage capacity during 2000-2018. Plentiful snowmelt runoff this past spring did little to regain that capacity. Today... Read More
Stealing the Rain
Image: Storm clouds over Badlands National Park, South Dakota. Photo by Brian Richter One of the great benefits of my role as the water scarcity... Read More
A Giant Has Fallen
My dear friend Arjen Hoekstra – a giant in the water community — died last night while riding his bike to his home in the... Read More
Renewing Our Energies
Image: The place where solitude lives: King Range National Conservation Area, California. Photo by Brian Richter In September I had the opportunity to visit the... Read More
Growing Water in the Desert
Image above: Lettuce farming in Yuma County, Arizona. An estimated 90 percent of US lettuce consumed in the winter comes from this area (courtesy of... Read More
Growing Water
Image: Flood-irrigated farm fields in the Imperial Irrigation District of southern California. Studies have shown that a switch from flood (furrow) irrigation to sub-surface drip... Read More
Swimming with Mastodons
Image: Danielle Tremblay of Colorado Parks and Wildlife holding a Colorado pikeminnow captured in the Colorado River near Grand Junction. The Colorado pikeminnow – Ptychocheilus... Read More
A Water Plan for the 22nd Century
Image: Austin skyline with the Colorado River of Texas running through it. Photo credit: City of Austin I’ve just read Austin’s new 100-year water plan.... Read More
The Great Race Between Water Conservation and Climate Change
Image: “Watering the sky, Carbondale, Colorado” To stay ahead of climate change we’ll need to double down on water conservation in cities and on farms.... Read More
Wetland Revival: Using impact investment to restore nature
Conservation interests and agencies gathered along the Murray River in Australia earlier this month to witness the return of water to a wetland system that... Read More
Wetland Revival: Using impact investment to restore nature
Conservation interests and agencies gathered along the Murray River in Australia earlier this month to witness the return of water to a wetland system that... Read More
World Water Week ~ Panel Discussion: How can we solve the competition for fresh water? – Part II
This SIWI Sofa session will explore the hypothesis that water competition can be harnessed to create incentives for positive change in the water sector—and do... Read More
A World Without Rivers
photo by Brian Richter I was looking at a river bed And the story it told of a river that flowed Made me sad to... Read More
A World Without Rivers
photo by Brian Richter I was looking at a river bed And the story it told of a river that flowed Made me sad to... Read More
Video from University of Arizona lecture
Water Sustainability Program Distinguished Speaker Series, co-sponsored by the Water Resources Research Center Thursday, March 5, 2015, University of Arizona Brian Richter, Chief Scientist,... Read More
Climate One TV: Chasing Water
Climate One TV January 2015: It is posted online at Fora.tv Broadcast January 25, 2015 on KRCB TV 22 in the Bay Area Chasing Water... Read More
A Think Tank for the Colorado River’s Future
Grand Canyon photo by Brian Richter Have you ever been in a work meeting or a classroom when you realize that you – and... Read More
A Think Tank for the Colorado River’s Future
Grand Canyon photo by Brian Richter Have you ever been in a work meeting or a classroom when you realize that you – and... Read More
Brian Interviewed on Colorado Public Radio
Here’s a transcript of the interview.
Can Desalination Help Save a Holy River?
Roman bridge over the Jordan River, which forms the boundary between Israel and Jordan The Jordan River of the Middle East has supported a long... Read More
Can Desalination Help Save a Holy River?
Roman bridge over the Jordan River, which forms the boundary between Israel and Jordan The Jordan River of the Middle East has supported a long... Read More
Water Markets: A New Tool for Securing Urban Water Supplies?
Originally Published in EcoLogic from the Nature Conservancy City water planners are finding it increasingly difficult to secure addi- tional water supplies in many water-short... Read More
Interwiew: Brian Richter’s ‘Chasing Water’: Smarter Solutions for the Coming Water Scarcity
Originally published June 30, 2014 | by: Bob Lalasz | Nature Conservancy Blog Water shortages aren’t just for California. They might be coming to your... Read More
The Australian Approach to Water Crisis: Work With Farmers
The Murray River near Renmark, Australia. (Photograph by Brian Richter) With water crises erupting in California, Texas, and the Colorado River Basin, state water managers... Read More
The Australian Approach to Water Crisis: Work With Farmers
The Murray River near Renmark, Australia. (Photograph by Brian Richter) With water crises erupting in California, Texas, and the Colorado River Basin, state water managers... Read More
Regimes and Cycles, Rhythm and Flow
Originally Published on MAY 26, 2014 | Nature Conservancy – Conservancy Talk | I very well remember the day long ago when I read a scientific... Read More
Re-thinking Environmental Flows: From Allocations and Reserves to Sustainability Boundaries.
Richter, B.D. 2009. Rivers Research and Applications 25: 1-12. Download the pdf ABSTRACT: Attempts to implement environmental flows have encountered many obstacles. Many water allocation systems include... Read More